This journal article was from a study that was conducted in the Netherlands as to the risks and benefits in vaccinating against varicella zoster. The journal article is relatively informative in terms of why people should be vaccinated and the correlations between hospital and GP visits. However, as the study has only been used with a small number of subjects (ie 380 people that were selected out of almost 9000) there may be limitations in the data that has been acquired. Although this article doesn't outline who is at greatest risk of contracting varicella zoster, it does outline the age groups that are at highest risk of complications associated with contraction.
The data that is displayed in this study I think is beneficial when deciding to vaccinate a population against varicella zoster as once again it shows the people who are at greatest risk of contracting the associated diseases (chicken pox, shingles and herpes zoster). This study was published in 2006 and uses information gathered from the previous decade, as early as 1994 so this may be a factor that is a limitation in the use of this article. Although this is a few years old the principles in vaccination against varicella zoster would still be similar.
The above link displays a publication by the Northern territory centre for disease control which is used to inform the public of tuberculosis and how it may affect the population. this publication is similar to a pamphlet and outlines what the disease is, the common symptoms, how it is spread, risk factors and basic information on how it is treated. Rather than a journal article with high academic standard, this publication I can imagine would be used to target the general public and the indigenous population.
This type of publication I think would be extremely beneficial in terms of public awareness of such a condition as it outlines the early warning signs of the condition, what to do if tuberculosis is suspected and how to go about a cure or medicine. Information such as this is good in a sense that it can be used to target people that are only educated to a basic degree and give them really all that is required for simple knowledge of the condition. However, this type of publication is very brief and has no in depth information of the condition that may be required from a health professional's perspective.
Overall, this publication by the NT government would be good to spread public awareness to the community regarding tuberculosis however from the perspective of a health care professional the information displayed in this publication would be inadequate and insufficient.
Comment by Thuy John, this is definitely a useful publication that is targeted to the general public. As you mentioned it outlines what a public member would want to know about the disease; common symptoms, how it's spread, risk factors, treatments etc. If I wanted to know about a condition (as a general public) this would give me a overall picture of the disease. The publication would be easily understood by people with basic education, however I think this would not be the ideal publication for the indigenous community. More visual images and less writing (closer to a pamphlet), I think would be more effective in passing on the information because learning is generally taught through drawings and story telling. I agree this publications is too brief for health care professionals to use. For a pharmacist, beside from getting a basic overview of the symptoms, mode of transmission etc, the medications particularly are not discussed providing little uefulness.
Comment by Thai
This link was useful on the basis of getting a ground understanding of what TB is, but its not specific enough as Thuy has said. Maybe not a good document for professionals to understand further to why they would need a TB vaccination. Do you have any other links abuot TB that would be a little more in depth? This could be a baseline understanding of what TB is and the treatment etc, however if anyone would like to know a little bit more on TB and testing, i've put up a video link to listen to which was useful to me, maybe not useful to others but it could be worth listening to.
Jonathan, this was a very good source and it should be very useful in terms of helping us outline how we are going to put together our final product. It is very easy to read and simple to understand. Whether it is read by the average person or a health care professional, the major points are illustrated and elaborated very well in this article. I can already tell that this article will provide the basic steady ground we need to start from in order to get this project up and running. We will just need to combine it with the statistics relevant to the Northern Territory in order to justify the TB vaccine requirements.- Gregory
This is relevant infromation on varicella zoster as it explains what it is in detail and who is at risk, the symptoms and signs of infection. I think this would be useful in the showcase to provide an explination of the condition. Thuy
This is shingles caused by herpes zoster in an elderly patient
comment from Thai:
This picture is ideal to be used on the final wiki page to illustrate visual signs of shingles.
The link above diplays guidelines from the northern territory department of health and families that show the risk factors of tuberculosis that may differ in the northern territory form anywhere else in the world. This article also oulines procedures that need to be taken when reporting cases of tuberculosis and leprosy, management and screening. Information in an article such as this one would be beneficial to healthcare professionals as there is an outline on how tom deal with certain aspects of these diseases. The most interesting part of this publication by the NT government is that it outlines all the risk factors for tuberculosis that may differ from risk factors of the disease in other parts of the world. In particular it examines the idea of risk factors such as remote settings, substandard housing and overcrowding, poor hygiene, alcoholism and use of tobacco.
This type of publication is an example of how risk factors in the northern territory may influence tuberculosis and its prevalence compared to any other area of the world. This was released in 2009 so the information regarding tuberculosis in the northern territory would be relatively recent and up to date.
Jane has made comments on the Discussion board above
.
The article above describes a number of adverse effects that may occur with certain vaccines. Im not sure how relevant this is to our topic however it does outline a numbder of ADRs that may occur. This particular article looks at the problems associated in children but may still be relevant to others using similar vaccines. It is important to note with this study that the manufacturers were involved so this may be a drawback on how clinically significant the information is.
The graph above is taken from the WHO website and outlines the increasing number of TB vaccines since the 1980's
Hey guys sorry about the late notice but the following link is really informative about tuberculosis and the incidence within Australia over the past few decades if you get a chance have a read. It comes form the Australian department of health so the information should be pretty reliable as it is a government organisation. TB data
The graphs give the epidemiology of the disease a good visual aspect John. They should definately be used in the final show piece. It includes indiginous studies which is very valuable for us in the NT. Good find!
Ross
The following is just updated data from the link above it is a bit more recent TB 2007
The more recent the better. Ross Figure 50. Varicella notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
Figure 50. Varicella notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
Notifications where the date of notification was between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2005.
This graph is taken from the department of health website and shows the age groups most likely to be affected by VZV. It is important to note that south australia is the only state that the disease is notifiable so this data strictly refers to SA. This may be a draw back and I'm not sure whether this should go on the final page.
Similarly the following graph shows the inverse realtionship between the herpes zoster and varicella zoster Figure 52. Herpes zoster notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
Figure 52. Herpes zoster notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
The SA only factor is a little concerning, however if SA is the only state that reports incidences of varicella, then maybe we could just say so in the final showpiece. I think it is good to include all these visual tools, otherwise it won't engage the reader and will be an essay. No one wants to read one of those if they don't have to!!! Ross These graphs will be very essential for our final draft as they will provide strong visual aids that will help our target audience understand and decipher the statsitical significance of the incidence rates of these infectious agents. It will be good to compare NT rates to those in other states (SA) and at an international level.- Gregory http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-cdi31suppl.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3p.htm
Johnathon check this link because I can't access it-Thuy.
Sorry guys it says that the link is broken I'll try to find the source this afternoon so you can view it
This journal article was from a study that was conducted in the Netherlands as to the risks and benefits in vaccinating against varicella zoster. The journal article is relatively informative in terms of why people should be vaccinated and the correlations between hospital and GP visits. However, as the study has only been used with a small number of subjects (ie 380 people that were selected out of almost 9000) there may be limitations in the data that has been acquired. Although this article doesn't outline who is at greatest risk of contracting varicella zoster, it does outline the age groups that are at highest risk of complications associated with contraction.
The data that is displayed in this study I think is beneficial when deciding to vaccinate a population against varicella zoster as once again it shows the people who are at greatest risk of contracting the associated diseases (chicken pox, shingles and herpes zoster). This study was published in 2006 and uses information gathered from the previous decade, as early as 1994 so this may be a factor that is a limitation in the use of this article. Although this is a few years old the principles in vaccination against varicella zoster would still be similar.
[[http://www.health.nt.gov.au/library/scripts/objectifyMedia.aspx?file=pdf/25/79.pdf&siteID=1&str_title=Tuberculosis - what you need to know.pdf]]
The above link displays a publication by the Northern territory centre for disease control which is used to inform the public of tuberculosis and how it may affect the population. this publication is similar to a pamphlet and outlines what the disease is, the common symptoms, how it is spread, risk factors and basic information on how it is treated. Rather than a journal article with high academic standard, this publication I can imagine would be used to target the general public and the indigenous population.
This type of publication I think would be extremely beneficial in terms of public awareness of such a condition as it outlines the early warning signs of the condition, what to do if tuberculosis is suspected and how to go about a cure or medicine. Information such as this is good in a sense that it can be used to target people that are only educated to a basic degree and give them really all that is required for simple knowledge of the condition. However, this type of publication is very brief and has no in depth information of the condition that may be required from a health professional's perspective.
Overall, this publication by the NT government would be good to spread public awareness to the community regarding tuberculosis however from the perspective of a health care professional the information displayed in this publication would be inadequate and insufficient.
Comment by Thuy
John, this is definitely a useful publication that is targeted to the general public. As you mentioned it outlines what a public member would want to know about the disease; common symptoms, how it's spread, risk factors, treatments etc. If I wanted to know about a condition (as a general public) this would give me a overall picture of the disease. The publication would be easily understood by people with basic education, however I think this would not be the ideal publication for the indigenous community. More visual images and less writing (closer to a pamphlet), I think would be more effective in passing on the information because learning is generally taught through drawings and story telling. I agree this publications is too brief for health care professionals to use. For a pharmacist, beside from getting a basic overview of the symptoms, mode of transmission etc, the medications particularly are not discussed providing little uefulness.
Comment by Thai
This link was useful on the basis of getting a ground understanding of what TB is, but its not specific enough as Thuy has said. Maybe not a good document for professionals to understand further to why they would need a TB vaccination. Do you have any other links abuot TB that would be a little more in depth? This could be a baseline understanding of what TB is and the treatment etc, however if anyone would like to know a little bit more on TB and testing, i've put up a video link to listen to which was useful to me, maybe not useful to others but it could be worth listening to.
Jonathan, this was a very good source and it should be very useful in terms of helping us outline how we are going to put together our final product. It is very easy to read and simple to understand. Whether it is read by the average person or a health care professional, the major points are illustrated and elaborated very well in this article. I can already tell that this article will provide the basic steady ground we need to start from in order to get this project up and running. We will just need to combine it with the statistics relevant to the Northern Territory in order to justify the TB vaccine requirements.- Gregory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wdU5zZlxew
This link outlines varicella zoster and what it causes on inital exposure and multiple exposures
This is relevant infromation on varicella zoster as it explains what it is in detail and who is at risk, the symptoms and signs of infection. I think this would be useful in the showcase to provide an explination of the condition.
Thuy
This is shingles caused by herpes zoster in an elderly patient
comment from Thai:
This picture is ideal to be used on the final wiki page to illustrate visual signs of shingles.
TB and Leprosy in NT
The link above diplays guidelines from the northern territory department of health and families that show the risk factors of tuberculosis that may differ in the northern territory form anywhere else in the world. This article also oulines procedures that need to be taken when reporting cases of tuberculosis and leprosy, management and screening. Information in an article such as this one would be beneficial to healthcare professionals as there is an outline on how tom deal with certain aspects of these diseases. The most interesting part of this publication by the NT government is that it outlines all the risk factors for tuberculosis that may differ from risk factors of the disease in other parts of the world. In particular it examines the idea of risk factors such as remote settings, substandard housing and overcrowding, poor hygiene, alcoholism and use of tobacco.
This type of publication is an example of how risk factors in the northern territory may influence tuberculosis and its prevalence compared to any other area of the world. This was released in 2009 so the information regarding tuberculosis in the northern territory would be relatively recent and up to date.
Jane has made comments on the Discussion board above
The article above describes a number of adverse effects that may occur with certain vaccines. Im not sure how relevant this is to our topic however it does outline a numbder of ADRs that may occur. This particular article looks at the problems associated in children but may still be relevant to others using similar vaccines. It is important to note with this study that the manufacturers were involved so this may be a drawback on how clinically significant the information is.
The graph above is taken from the WHO website and outlines the increasing number of TB vaccines since the 1980's
Hey guys sorry about the late notice but the following link is really informative about tuberculosis and the incidence within Australia over the past few decades if you get a chance have a read. It comes form the Australian department of health so the information should be pretty reliable as it is a government organisation.
TB data
The graphs give the epidemiology of the disease a good visual aspect John. They should definately be used in the final show piece. It includes indiginous studies which is very valuable for us in the NT. Good find!
Ross
The following is just updated data from the link above it is a bit more recent
TB 2007
The more recent the better.
Ross
Figure 50. Varicella notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
- Notifications where the date of notification was between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2005.
This graph is taken from the department of health website and shows the age groups most likely to be affected by VZV. It is important to note that south australia is the only state that the disease is notifiable so this data strictly refers to SA. This may be a draw back and I'm not sure whether this should go on the final page.Similarly the following graph shows the inverse realtionship between the herpes zoster and varicella zoster
Figure 52. Herpes zoster notifications, South Australia, 2003 to 2005, by age group and sex
The SA only factor is a little concerning, however if SA is the only state that reports incidences of varicella, then maybe we could just say so in the final showpiece. I think it is good to include all these visual tools, otherwise it won't engage the reader and will be an essay. No one wants to read one of those if they don't have to!!!
Ross
These graphs will be very essential for our final draft as they will provide strong visual aids that will help our target audience understand and decipher the statsitical significance of the incidence rates of these infectious agents. It will be good to compare NT rates to those in other states (SA) and at an international level.- Gregory
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cda-cdi31suppl.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3.htm~cda-cdi31suppl-3p.htm